making-sense-of-change-management

The applicationsFour-stage team alignment1. Understanding one another’s skills, feelings and values.It is useful for the team to acknowledge its own journey to where itis today. This means talking about the individuals, the team andother influential parts of the organization, and the processes ofchanges that have been gone through to arrive at the current situation.How much of this it is necessary to acknowledge will dependupon the scale of change and the story so far.2. Clarifying and prioritizing current work.The team needs to clarify the current level of demand, and mustwork together to satisfy current customer needs.3. Clarifying and prioritizing future work and direction.If teams are facing a large change agenda, they can easily becomeoverwhelmed unless activities are phased and planned. Do-abilitymust be convincing. Teams need to take stock of their currentagenda, ensure it is understood, and agree priorities, responsibilitiesand timing.4. Functioning effectively as a team.The impact of stages 1 to 3 can be extremely demanding on a team.The team needs to develop clarity about its roles, dynamics, practicalitiesof meetings, phasing of its development activities, communicationand follow-through. Most teams will have deficiencies anddevelopment needs in one or more areas. Teams need to assess wherethey need to improve and focus on those areas as a priority.The specific outcome of this process for individuals and teams is greaterclarity about the practical changes that need to happen and how necessarytransformations can be managed.You will have seen from the chapters on individual and team changethat all individuals and teams undergoing change will progress throughvarious stages. The four-stage team alignment model above attempts toaddress some of the key points from those chapters. Table 5.4 on pages216–19 brings all the key team factors together as a useful reference.220